To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the (a) longest and (b) mean length of time was for decisions to be made on applications to the Civil Society Challenge Fund in each of the last three funding rounds. (260423)

The deadline for submission of full proposals to the Civil Society Challenge Fund (CSCF) is 31 July every year. In order to allow rigorous appraisal of the high numbers of proposals received, guidelines published for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 rounds indicated that applicants would be notified of decisions in the following March (up to 246 days after submission).

In the last three funding rounds, decisions were announced on the following dates:

The longest time for decisions to be announced was therefore 266 days in 2007. The mean time for decisions to be announced was 246 days.